Liv(in)g Room

Description

This body of work follows 20-something year old black lesbians located in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. It’s about the beauty that comes with experiencing black lesbian love (romantic, platonic and self). It documents how black lesbian love is expressed in its multiple forms and how healing the experience can be. It documents black lesbians existing in a safe space – a home. To reflect the idea of home I am using my own interpretation of what home is for me and bringing elements of it to share with other black lesbians. Being a person who finds comfort and healing in their own home I recognize that it is a privilege to have physical space I can consider safe. I acknowledge that there are plenty of other black lesbians who don’t have the privilege to exist as their unapologetic selves hence why I intend to build a liv(in)g room to represent a home in which a black lesbian can feel the most comfortable existing in. By creating a liv(in)g space through their poetry and textiles I can offer a safe space to live in, not only for myself, but for the black lesbians and sapphics who have had or still have a hard time expressing their identities and love around people who don’t identify as LGBTQ+ or allies out of fear of being discriminated against. I capture the intimacy within black lesbianhood in the different forms that it takes. With this series of works I portray the different representations of black lesbians as they exist and the love that we are able to share with each other and those around us. From masculine presenting to feminine presenting individuals, nonbinary lesbians, women identifying lesbians, and every individual who identifies with their blackness as well as their lesbianhood. I explore this concept using poetry and textiles (tufting). Tufting and crocheting are the textile mediums I use to frame my work as they represent comfort and softness, which are a few of the themes of my work. By creating furniture and other pieces of homeware located in a living room, I aim to create an intimate and private space that feels safe and exudes comfort, healing and love. The tufted and crocheted works are accompanied by poetry and love letters I’ve written for myself, to my partner and for the black lesbians who have shared their love with me. The written element of the work is very key to experiencing the intimacy of the work itself. It is one with the textiles and the liv(in)g space. Poetry is one of the most beautiful forms of writing that best illustrates the love and overall relationship that I share with the world. This is a love letter to myself and those who relate to the stories that I tell through my art. It is a love letter to us.